Lies, Damn Lies, and Lists
It’s that time of year again….525,600 minutes to measure and another 525,600 minutes to resolve: New Year’s Resolution lists, the review of 2005’s list and the making of the 2006 list. Technorati is tracking resolutions by blog, by minute (looks like about a post per minute) and Dave Sifry’s Alerts explains how to tag them. Ice Rocket tracked 22,771 posts while the Technorati current English total is 42,665.
I could always put "Stop Procrastinating" at the top of any of my resolution lists and just to illustrate that I have again not achieved this objective, I am sitting here writing about lists. Of course there are lots of learning and behavior theories that could be useful in explaining the annual list making process….many of these theories could even incorporate procrastination. I think it would be best to immediately invoke the Ockham’s Razor principle of simplicity: give the simplest answer compatible with current experience otherwise all that will be explained is my procrastination.
My simple list, with the following disclaimer: it’s all about me. For a really great Bloggers Wish List for 2006, see Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing. For a list on How to Fix Your Life in 2006 see the Wall Street Journal.
1. Control what I can, let go of the rest. Work on definitions.
2. Listen more. Say thank you.
3. Compartmentalize; family first.
4. Make a daily list, check it twice. No pouting OR shouting.
5. Use Mind Map.
Happy 2006!
Technorati Tags:
New Years Resolutions, 2006, Lists, Procrastination, Ockham’s Razor
Performancing
I have not had much success using any of the available blog posting tools such as ecto…I can acccept everyone elses rave reviews, but for me one of my biggest frustrations with Typepad is working on a post and then for one reason or another having it vanish before I hit "save" or "publish". The very first time I tried to use ecto I watched in complete horror as the very same thing happened. Even having Technorati tags is not worth losing a post.
So, having read about Performancing for Firefox at Blog Herald the other day I downloaded it and then oddly enough, actually read the step-by-step instructions. One slight problem…I could not find the little notepad icon anywhere; the icon that starts the whole process.
Now, strange behavior is no stranger to my computer. Last week, all of the bookmarklets on my toolbar stopped working…no explanation or intentional act on my part. After some trial and error I discovered that they now worked in a sidebar that I didn’t know I had….since no one could explain the demise of the toolbar except to mumble that one-size-fits-all phrase "virus", I decided that the path of least resistance was just to use the sidebar and hope that the funcionality would return to my toolbar just as spontaneously as it left.
When the icon for Performancing could not be found…I decided it must be part of the Toolbar Effect. Tonight, when I thought I would investigate a little further I clicked on something that said toolbar and miraculously the little notepad icon appeared, and here I am testing Performancing. The toolbar is still not functional.
So, without further delay I am going to give Performancing for Firefox the option to publish and tag for me.
Technorati Tags: Performancing, tags, Firefox, Technorati
Google Grants: Search Advertising for Non-Profits
USA Today ran a story today about Google Grants, the in-kind advertising program for non-profits utilizing Google Ad-Words. According to USA Today, Google has given away $33 million dollars to 850 non-profits over the last two years.To participate, an organization must have 501(c)(3)
status, and share Google’s "philosophy of community service and have a strong mission to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts."
Religious and political groups are not eligible to participate. Google staffers volunteer to make the decisions about who receives a grant based upon a review of the organization’s application and their determination of the "fit" between the organization’s mission and Google’s stated philosophy. Google states that over 8O% of the organizations that apply for the grants are accepted.
An application can be found on-line. New recipients are selected each quarter.
Technorati Tags Google Grants, Non-profits, Search Engine Marketing
Missing Santa Claus
In December of 1993 when my oldest son was three I read a column in
the Wall Street Journal by David Chartrand called "A Father’s Letter to
Santa." It was one of those moments where the words on a page, written
by a total stranger, simply and succinctly captured something for me
that I couldn’t articulate myself….it made me smile, laugh out loud
and brought tears to my eyes as I read it; I have it still and each
time I read it, it still resonates as so true…. and brings me back to
that very moment fifteen years ago when I could look down at my son,
instead of up, and make wishes that involved Santa Claus.
I did a Google search for the author; it was not the first time that I had done so; this year however, I found an email address on his web site
and asked him if I could reprint it on my blog along with this year’s
Christmas card photo. He generously and immediately, gave me his
permission. The web again makes the world a little smaller and a little
warmer. Although it is probably right here that I can also attribute
blame to this very same web for taking Santa from our Christmases…oh
I will take the blame myself, I should have been more careful; but in
1999 I began ordering Christmas presents on-line and as the boxes
arrived from e-toys my oldest son
noticed the return address was not the North Pole, and Santa’s gig was
up. And so was mine, for the second time in my life. I took it better
the first time, at five. This time I was old enough to really miss
having Santa at Christmas time….he adds so much.
A Father’s Letter to Santa
by David Chartrand
Dear Santa
MY FIVE-YEAR-OLD BOY scribbled out his Christmas list. It’s there by the fireplace. The Coke and M&Ms are from him, in case you’re hungry. You know 5-year-olds these days. The Cheezits are from me. Christmas List From His Father David Chartrand is a syndicated newspaper columnist and author of "A View From Both of my children took the news about Santa pretty well…my
Santa, if you don’t mind, I thought I’d go ahead and leave my list, too. It’s long, but do what you can. It’s all I want for Christmas.
Santa, let my little boy grow up still believing that he has the funniest dad in the neighborhood.
Give him many close friends, both boys and girls. May they fill his days with adventure, security and dirty fingernails.
Leave his mom and me some magic dust that will keep him just the size he is now. We’d just as soon he stayed 5 years old and three feet, four inches.
If he must grow up, make sure he still wants to sit on my lap at bedtime and read The Frog and the Toad.
If you can help it, Santa, never let him be sent into war. His mother and I love our country, but we love our 5-year-old boy more. While you’re at it, give our world leaders a copy of "The Killer Angels," Michael Shaara’s retelling of the Battle of Gettysburg. May it remind them that too many moms and dads have wept at Christmas for soldiers who died in battles that needn’t have been fought.
Let our house always be filled with slamming doors and toilet seats, which are the official sounds of little boys.
Break it to him gently, Santa. that his dad won’t always be able to carry him to bed at night or brush his teeth for him. Teach him courage In the face of such change.
Let him understand that no matter how nice you are to everyone, the world will sometimes break your heart. As you know, Santa, a child’s feelings are fragile as moth wings.
Let him become a piano player, a soccer star or a priest. Or all three. Anything but a tax-and-spend Democrat.
Give him a hunger for books, music and geography. May he be the first kid in kindergarten to be able to find Madagascar on a map.
The kid’s a born artist, Santa, so send more crayons. May our kitchen window and refrigerator doors be ever plastered with his sketches of surreal rainbows and horses with big ears.
Through the years, steer him oh so carefully to that little girl destined to be his bride. Let his mother and me still be aroound when he walks her down the aisle. If there’s a just God, let her daddy be obscenely rich.
Grant him a heart that will cherish what his parents did right and forgive us for the mistakes we surely will have made over a lifetime of raising him.
Let him not hold it against us that he was born with my chin and his mother’s ears. Time will teach him that these are god’s ways of girding him for life’s adventure.
Hold him steady on the day that he learns the truth about you and the Easter Bunny. May he take the news better than I did.
While you’re flying around the heavens, Santa, make sure God has heard our prayer for this child: lead this little boy not into temptation; deliver him from evil.
Be careful out there, Santa. And close the flue on your way up.
the Heartland." You may see his work at www.davidchartrand.com, or email him at
dvc@davidchartrand.com. Reprinted by permission
younger son held out for a year longer after he figured it out. He
told me he didn’t want to spoil it for me. I appreciated that. I also
hoped that he wanted to linger with Santa just a little longer himself.
Christmas 2005…Best wishes!
Technorati Tags:
Santa Claus, Christmas
Core Assets and Social Capital
In Forrester Research’s weekly update, Charlene Li writes, "Yahoo! bought social bookmarking and tagging leader del.icio.us to add bookmark
tagging to its social computing portfolio. The value of tagging is that when
individuals label something online, they call it out as valuable. If enough people tag Yahoo!-stored assets as, then the collective intelligence of the masses is captured for all to use and Yahoo!’s site becomes richer, cleaner, and more satisfying-all magic words to an ad-supported business model. Other portal, search, media and retail sites should join the ranks of Yahoo! in making tagging a core asset."
Alec Saunders
writes that Yahoo! validated the value of tagging by buying
del.icio.us. He says, "Today tags might be the ultimate sticky asset.
Your tags are a reflection of your values, your thinking, your mindset.
Shared tags reflect the collective interest of a community. Tags and
profile, together could be used as contextual triggers for advertising
driving much more precisely targeted delivery than is possible today.
If, as the Web 2.0 advocates suggest, data is the new platform, then
Yahoo! just brought a core platform asset.
Well, yes, Sugar
Plum….in keeping with the spirit of the season, those visions of
assets do dance in Yahoo!’s head, or is it portfolios of assets that
dance in their visions? Yahoo!’s tags may be "social networks" but the "it" in that beloved expression, "your it" is search….and advertising and m-o-n-e-y. In the words of Thomas Hawk,
"Google and their non human algorithm have significantly trounced
Yahoo!
at the core service that was at one time the central technology of
Yahoo’s business, search. And up for grabs in the search game going
forward are still billions and billions of dollars."
OK..so that’s the business model. Assets, value…sticky assets, core assets, valuable. That seems to upset some bloggers. But let’s not forget that tagging is about users. There is a lot of really great things being written about social networks from the benefit to users
standpoint….David Pollard writes frequently on the topic of blogs, social networks, knowledge management and other inter-related topics.
And I think there is another important element in the asset play: social capital. In the year 2000, Robert Putnam published a book called Bowling Alone with the premise that Americans were suffering from a deficit in social
capital…that we had gone from belonging to bowling leagues to bowling
alone. Social capital is defined as the collective value of all "social
networks" [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these
networks to do things for each other ["norms of reciprocity"]….a wide
variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust,
reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who are connected and - at least sometimes - for bystanders as well." It sounds a lot like the hallmarks of blogging and online social networks to me.
I think that rumors of the death of social capital
were greatly exaggerated….I think it is alive and well and has just
re-defined and in fact expanded the meaning of communities. Instead of bowling alone we are tagging together ….and blogging connects us in all kinds of amazing ways from shared knowledge and information to personal and business relationships and colloboration that would be impossible if we had to wear those nasty bowling shoes to experience.
Technorati Tags:
tagging, Yahoo, Del.icio.us, social capital, social networking
Blogging at the Institute with Danny Wedding
A required class on Mental Health Policy , offered in the evening was not high on my list of classes I was anticipating to like at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work in the fall of 2003. But I was not anticipating Professor Danny Wedding….the class was awesome!
Besides being an authority on Mental Health Policy, Danny is Director and Professor of Psychiatry at the Missouri Institute for Mental Health, the Center for Policy, Research and Training for the Department of Mental Health. Danny has written books on psychotherapy, movies and mental illness, memory and numerous others topics. He is the editor of Contemporary Psychology and is a frequent speaker. He has a long list of degrees, and most recently acquired a Master’s degree in English. I admit envy…in my dream life I would be a professional student.
Simply put, Danny is a really interesting guy and a conversation with Danny is always thought provoking and fun. So, several months ago when I was thinking about who in St. Louis should be blogging, Danny Wedding immediately came to mind. And sure enough, he was blogging. He invited me to come down to the MIMH and participate in their Speaker’s Series and that’s where I spent the morning today….talking about blogging. With all the interesting things that are happening there, I hope they will add their voices to the blogosphere.
Danny is requiring students in his Mental Health Policy class to set up a blog for their final grade….he was kind enough to give me credit for what I think was his great idea. When I took his class, he required a power point. He has set up a blog for the class, a kind of interactive syllabus, which is really a great blog application. So, I am going to add Danny’s class blog to my power point presentation on blogging….and I will look forward to learning a little more about Mental Health Policy through the student blogs. I think there is a Venn diagram in there someplace.
Update: Danny, Mary Ann Boyd and Ryan Niemiec have a blog for the 3rd edition of Movies and Mental Illness. Check it out!
Technorati Tags:
blogs, mental health policy, education blogs
Update from the Tag Patrol
Technorati has announced a new ping page which allows one-click pinging for signed-in members with claimed blogs. The page lets you know that Technorati your pings are getting through and that Technorati has visited your blog. This is helpful. But as A Consuming Experience points out and I will quote, there is still that maddening little tag problem:
"And while it’s good that they are regularly indexing, I wish they would fix the problems with their tag pages (or maybe tags indexing or tags database), which clearly people arestill experiencing - I’ve found myself that my post on how to offer different lengths of feed to your subscribers
isn’t showing up on their tag pages though it’s clearly on their index.
I don’t know if it’s because I included code in that post, but some
guidance as to what can break their system would be helpful so we know
what to avoid."
Del.icio.us Tags:
pings, tags, Technorati Ping Page
Technorati Tags:
pings, tags, Technorati Ping Page
The Anytime Show Starring Jay Leno
Marketing Vox reports that NBC will be distributing TV shows on ITunes, eleven of them to be exact; included will be Law & Order, Dragnet, Knight Rider and the Tonight Show and Conan O’Brien…they will be available first thing in the morning after the night they air on the West Coast for $1.99. The march of the time shift/place shift continues…..the Global Village never sleeps but we can, thanks to our Video IPod
The medium, or process, of our time-electric technology-is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and reevaluate practically every thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted. Everything is changing-you, your family, your neighborhood, your education, your job, your government, your relation to "others." And they are changing dramatically. Marshall McLuhan 1967
Was Marshall McLuhan an IPod visionary?
If you aren’t convinced read this:The Video IPod Goes to School was posted by Tris Hussey at A View From the Isle. He is talking about a class at Carleton University in Ottawa where the lecture that is being given is available through ITunes…an audio or video lecture available anywhere/anytime. The University of British Columbia is making some awesome digital content available free through ITunes. University of Washington, Purdue, and Drexel are a few other universities doing similar things.
Technorati Tags:
IPod, Video IPod, ITunes, Marshall McLuhan,
Words, Buzzwords, Tags, and Buzztags
Have You Updated your Buzzwords? That is the question being asked by Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users….one of the blogs I would absolutely want to have access to should I find myself on the proverbial desert Island. She says that we are on Internet time, baby and last month’s buzzwords quickly become like email, "so 5 minutes ago".
Her point about the latest (as of 5 minutes ago) Web 2.0x buzzwords (ok what’s with the "x"? Oh, yeah..we’re on internet time, baby) is that they are not user focused but technology/business model focused….she says that the buzzwords should be written in terms of users…the buzzwords should convey what the benefit of the innovation is to users not as be an explanation of the technology. As she explicitly states, "A buzz-phrase should explicitly state how it directly benefits the user." To paraphrase, it should capture, not the technology but the this rocks/I rock when I use it user experience.
OK..so that explains how Web 2.0x buzz words should explain the benefit of the "thing" that they are buzzing about. What then is the benefit of the buzzwords themselves? It occurs to me that there is a relationship between buzzwords and tagging.
Are buzzwords in fact a kind of user directed information organizational tool, like a tag? Tag being itself a Web 2.0 buzzword…as Web 2.0 is in fact a buzzword itself. Actually, Web 2.0 is a kind of enormous buzz cloud filled with all kinds if buzz words: Just take Edge Perspectives with John Hagel’s definition: “an emerging network-centric platform to support distributed, collaborative and cumulative creation by its users.†Take the "an" the "to" the "and" the "by its" out of the preceeding sentence and all that is left are buzzwords.
So, are buzzwords in fact, tags without their soft navigational link side? Or, since buzzwords came before tags…are tags buzzwords with function?
As we struggle to categorize the onslaught of information constantly hurling our way into something meaningful to us and to others like us by tagging, so do buzzwords organize a process, a procedure, a movement, an event into a word or two, that is understood and "says it all" to us and to others like us.
I know that Kathy Sierra was talking about the problem with buzzwords being tech driven, not user driven; and that it would be more meaningful if the buzzwords conveyed "how this thing helps the user kick ass" however, when users start using the buzzwords, they are then driving the usage. Collaborative creation is a just buzzword on a presentation slide until the user feels collaborative creation….then they are driving. Turnabout is fair play…especially in a game of tag.
So the #1 benefit of buzzwords is in essence, social..,we are speaking a common language; we see things the same way: we are "in the know" together, united in our conversant buzzwords. Using buzzwords in a conversation is like a secret code…I hear you use a buzzword and know that you "get it" and I let you know
that I "get it, too" and the seat belt sign is off and I am free to
move around your cabin. Our use of buzzwords says something about us…we get "it" or we don’t get "it" as evidenced by our buzzwords.
As Mark Twain wrote long back when tag was a child’s game,"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug." The difference between a buzzword and a word is the difference between an IPod and an MP3 player. You can check the Technorati, del.icio.us, and Furl tags to see.
So, we now turn words into tags and if we are joined by others tagging the same word, the word becomes a buzzword? And if lots of other like tagging people, tag the same buzzword then the buzzword becomes a buzztag? In the mad, mad, mad world of Web 2.0 that is what it’s all about! And you thought it was the Hokey Pokey?
And of course there is a site dedicated to improving our Buzzword intelligence, BQ. I am not certain there is one yet for improving our Tag Intelligence, TI.
Technorati Tags:
tags, tagging, buzzwords, Technorati, buzztags
Closet Geek Tools of the Week
The ongoing Technorati tag mystery continued this week until a post on Allan Jenkin’s Desirable Roasted Coffee revealed the EGM Strategy Tag Generator. So far, it is working. Unfortunately, it is not working so well for Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing.…we might just have to write the last few verses of Twas NOT the Night Before Technorati Tags. In this tag game, it seems as if someone is always "not it."
From The eStrategyOne Buzz came SNARF, the "social network and relationship finder" from Microsoft. It is an Outlook add-on is supposed to organize your email by your own social network. I’ve installed it and think it has potental.
Digg is the third weekly addtion to my blog. According to their own definition, "Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking,
blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users
submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide
which stories go on the homepage, the users do." Depending how many people dig a Digg, the higher the rank on the Digg home page…another great user driven Web 2.0 application. You can post the stories to your blog (which I did in the left sidebar) or you can blog about the stories by clicking "Blog This"…or you can participate more passively and just read them.
Technorati Tags:
Technorati tag, Microsoft, SNARF, Digg
-
Subscribe to RPB
-
Marianne's Space
-
Marianne's Profiles
-
Facebook
Myspace
Twitter
delicious
Technorati
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Flickr